Sound principles

Rahman turns interviewer in this series about lesser-known genres

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Amit Gurbaxani

August 25, 2018

ISSUE DATE: September 3, 2018

UPDATED: August 25, 2018 10:10 IST

Photo: Jewel Samad/Getty Images

It's been done before on shows like The Dewarists, Sound Trek and Sound Trippin. The tried and tested formula: a popular musician travels to a city or town in India to collaborate with a counterpart from the classical or folk tradition. In the new Amazon Prime series Harmony with A.R. Rahman, directed by National Award winner Sruti Hariharan Subramanian, India's most eclectic composer does the same, but with a twist. He meets lesser-known instrumentalists and singers striving to keep a particular style of music alive.

Over the course of four episodes, we learn about the mizhavu from percussionist Sajith Vijayan in Kerala's Cheruthuruthy; the rudraveena from Hindustani classical musician Bahauddin Dagar in Mumbai; the panthong palith from flautist Mickma Tshering in Gangtok; and the folk song form of Khunung Eshei from Lourembam Bedabati in Manipur's Seijang village.

Rahman visits their homes to converse with them about their backgrounds and the history of their art, and also meets their students and teachers to gain further insight into their lives and music. We learn how Vijayan's guru, P.K. Narayanan Nambiar, was the first to take the mizhavu outside of temples so that people from other communities could learn to play it; how Dagar and his students are making their own veenas because they can't get them anywhere; how Tshering has formed a folk-fusion band to help popularise the songs of the Lepchas; and how Bedabati, the only woman featured, faced opposition when she decided to pursue a singing career.

Rahman, it turns out, is a great interviewer. He draws out anecdotes and opinions and even reveals a few things about himself along the way. For instance, he shares that being in the supergroup SuperHeavy with Mick Jagger encouraged him to be more experimental. Where Harmony falters is when he attempts to jam with his interviewees at the end of each episode. The idea seems to be to juxtapose the ancient with the ultra-modern; Rahman employs a range of fancy musical gadgets such as the Continuum fingerboard to duet with his hosts. But the results feel forced.

While watching the performances, we couldn't help but wonder how much better it would be if Rahman took the music back to his studio to work his magic. That's exactly what he does in the final instalment of Harmony, in which Vijayan, Dagar, Tshering and Bedabati assemble in his Chennai studio to perform a 22-minute composition. Fusing Indian and western classical music with folk, and featuring a Hindi choir, there's something a bit CokeStudio-ish about the opus, but somehow it works.

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